Art of Ancient Nevada

Lagomarsino Canyon

Lagomarsino Canyon is one of the largest petroglyph sites in Nevada, containing 2,229 rock art panels. It is one of only eight rock art sites in Nevada to be honored on the National Register of Historic Places. The site is a quarter of a mile in length, located on a fine-grained basalt cliff and associated talus slope. Lagomarsino Canyon is one of the most significant archaeological sites of its type in the Great Basin. Its scale and quality are impressive, and the site conveys a strong sense of place and prehistoric social routines. The site derives a broader significance from its role in the development of the archaeological study of Great Basin rock art sites, having shaped explanatory approaches to rock art’s prehistoric sociocultural contexts of use and in stylistic analyses of prehistoric art. The site retains considerable research potential and will continue to shape the way archaeologists conceptualize the role of visual symbolism in prehistoric societies. Detailed information about the site is available in this linked e-book. The e-book is a large file (28 MB) and will take about 1 hr to download using a 56Kb modem.

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The Art of Ancient Nevada webpages were produced with the assistance of the Nevada SHPO, through a Department of Interior grant.